Moroccan Chicken Soup

Inspired by Joey’s restaurant and the complex spices and flavours of North Africa with coriander, cumin and cinnamon. The base of this soup is chicken with chickpeas and carrots. This recipe was originally shared in 2013.

In our house, especially during the winter, there is always homemade soup in the fridge and my newest creation; Moroccan chicken soup got rave reviews from my soup-loving family.

This soup was inspired by a soup I had at a restaurant when I was doing some shopping with my mom and we stopped for a quick bite, I ordered the Moroccan soup and fell in love with the depth of flavour. The broth was delicately spiced, yet so flavourful. I knew that I wanted to learn more about Moroccan flavours and cuisine.

What is Moroccan cuisine?

Moroccan cuisine is a combination of influences from Arabic, Spanish, and Mediterranean cuisines, which is what makes it so interesting to me.

I started to do some research, taking books out of the library like Morocco: A Culinary Journey by Jeff Koehler and The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert to learn more about the culinary traditions of Morocco. I wanted to learn everything I could!

For this Moroccan-inspired soup, I also leaned on classic techniques that I know and love. It begins in a more classically French way, building flavours a classic mirepoix, a combination of carrots, celery and onion.

The spices are what you often find in Moroccan dishes, a combination of cumin, coriander, cinnamon and turmeric and they create a lightly spiced broth with a beautiful, rich colour.

One of the things I love the most about cooking is exploring different flavours and regions that are new to me. And I fell in love with the flavours of Morocco when I started cooking with their flavours. This Moroccan chicken soup with chickpeas is one of those recipes that inspired me to make a vegetarian version of Moroccan soup.

The chicken is poached in the liquid for the soup, so you don’t need to worry about having pre-cooked chicken on hand. This also adds extra flavour to the broth. I’m using boneless, skinless chicken breasts in this recipe along with chickpeas, but you could also use chicken thighs if that is what you have on hand.

What I love about this soup is that it’s super filling and makes the perfect packed lunch for work on cold, winter days. It’s also made with mostly pantry staples, and a few fresh ingredients that I always have in my fridge.

I also love making a Moroccan chicken stew, which leans on similar flavours and is another winter favourite.

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Nutrition information is an estimate and is provided for informational purposes only. If you have any specific dietary concerns, please consult with your healthcare practitioner.

We loved this Moroccan Chicken Soup and I hope you love it too, let me know if you try it in the comments.

Hi Janine, I'm very sorry to hear that you did not have a great experience with this soup. It's one of my favourite soups, so I'm not too sure what happened? Let me know if you have any questions about the recipe that I can help with!

We made this last night, and it was delicious! We included a bit of chopped apple to add some sweetness. Thank you for the recipe - we'll definitely be making this again. Just a note - I'm not sure if cup sizes are different in the UK, but I only put 5 cups of water in, and I could see it was going to be too watery, so added thickener at the end.

What a great simple recipe for soup. I love lemon in soup, it gives it a nice refreshing taste. And chickpeas are so delicious! I'll prob replace the carrots with something else (I hate cooked carrots). This will be a perfect healthy weekday meal.

The addition of shredded chicken was just what I was looking for. Thanks for posting. Just a thought. If you changed your method to searing the chicken and then frying the spices before adding the onions you could possibly get a better, "dry fry", on the spices as is more traditionally done in curries? Because most Moroccan soups that I have had are thicker I added potatoe chunks. Can't wait to make this on a fire at the beach!

I've made this soup a few times now - a couple of tips if in a rush! Use a 400g can of chopped tomatoes and fill the empty tin with water and use in the soup instead of crushed tomatoes and 7cups of water, works just as well. If you keep the breasts whole, you can use a handmixer to shred the chicken perfectly when its ready to serve. All in all, one of my favourite dinners and v hard to screw up. YUM!!